DVD Review - Iron Sky (2012)

Iron Sky, 2012.

Directed by Timo Vuorensola.
Starring Julia Dietze, Christopher Kirby, Peta Sergeant, Stephanie Paul, Kym Jackson, Götz Otto and Udo Kier.


SYNOPSIS:

In 1945, the Nazis retreated to a secret base on the moon. In 2018, they come back...


There are times when a film’s premise makes it a must watch. This could be because the idea is so brilliant it just has to be seen, or simply so awful, bizarre or strange, that it becomes essential viewing. Iron Sky would fall somewhere in the middle of the two. The selling point is Nazis on the moon. It’s fantastic, and slightly f**ked up to boot.

The premise is simple. In 2018, the US president (who could be Sarah Palin’s younger sister) has ordered an exploration to the moon with a black astronaut (James Washington, played by Christopher Kirby) as it will look good for her in the polls (as well as obtain a useful power source called Helium 3). Once on the moon the U.S space team is ambushed by Nazis. As it happens they’ve been living on the dark side of the moon since 1945, building space crafts and weapons of mass destruction ever since, waiting for the day to return and bring about Aryan domination.

Iron Sky is imaginative, and funny. It’s a real left field film that comes out of the blue and surprises. It’s not brilliant by any stretch, but the barmy premise is handled with tongue comfortably homed within cheek. The cast have fun with their roles. They’re playing for laughs, without going over board and making it too farcical. The characters remain rooted in some kind of reality, with some kind of threat and arc for certainly a few of them. Kirby as Washington is very good, as is Gotz Otto as Adler, who wants to become the new Fuhrer. Julie Dietze leads the movie well and is a likeable heroin. Elsewhere the most recognisable face and name was that of Udo Kier, as camp as ever.

Perhaps the films most impressive feat is the sense of scale given its small budget. Whilst it’s not taking itself too seriously it really does feel like a blockbuster at times. The effects are very good. Some of the sequences are really impressive and the film also looks slick. It looks far grander than it’s meagre budget would normally deliver, and looks a damn sight more impressive than many haphazard movies that Hollywood churns out for $100m plus. The FX team and director Timo Vuorensola have certainly earned themselves a stab at a bigger movie. The film's score is also impressively grandiose.

In all, Iron Sky takes an attention catching premise and does it justice. It’s simply entertainment, nothing more. It’s hardly game changing but as a poorer cousin to so many dull, uninspired and bloated blockbusters, this offers a lot of entertainment per pound. Most definitely worth a watch. Worth a repeat viewing? Perhaps.

Flickering Myth Rating - Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Tom Jolliffe

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First teaser trailer for Les Misérables released

British filmmaker Tom Hooper follows up the Academy Award-winning The King's Speech later this year with an adaptation of the stage musical Les Misérables, which is itself based on Victor Hugo's classic 1862 French novel of the same name, and the first trailer has just been released online today courtesy of Working Title Films and Universal Pictures.

Les Misérables sees Hugh Jackman (Australia) swapping the adamantium claws of Wolverine for the lead role of Jean Valjean, with Russell Crowe (Man of Steel) starring as the film's antagonist, Police Inspector Javert. Also featuring in the ensemble cast are Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises), Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator), Helena Bonham Carter (Dark Shadows), Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn), Amanda Seyfried (In Time) and Aaron Tveit (Gossip Girl).

Take a look at the teaser trailer here...


Les Misérables is set for release in North America on December 14th and arrives in the UK on January 11th, 2013.

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Sylvester Stallone on superhero movies and the action genre

As he prepares to join fellow action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Tomb, Sylvester Stallone has taken a moment to discuss the state of the action genre with Entertainment Tonight, and more specifically, the impact of the superhero movie on this once-glorious section of cinema: "[The action] genre unfortunately is becoming… let's just say it's fading away... You have the superheroes today which are possessed with all extraordinary powers; they can blink and a fireball comes out of there. It's great. And then you have a bunch of us which is just your basic male-pattern badness... Kind of like hands-on action."

Before The Tomb, Stallone and Schwarzenegger will also line up alongside action legends Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme in the explosive Simon West-directed sequel The Expendables 2, which is due to hit cinemas this coming August. With a cast that also includes the likes of Jason Statham and Jet Li, box office success is all but assured, but clearly it's unlikely to challenge the might of The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man or The Dark Knight Rises in terms of global receipts. Still, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance must surely be in its sights.

Do you agree with Sly? Has the superhero movie killed the traditional action genre?

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Cutting Edge: A conversation with film editor Peter Honess

Trevor Hogg chats with Academy Award-nominee Peter Honess about his career and the craft of film editing...

“My parents were not involved directly in the arts,” states British Film Editor Peter Honess who was the son of the head of personnel at MGM Studios in England. “I left school when I was 17 and after six months or so my Father got fed up with me hanging round the house; he came back from the Studios one Friday night and told me I would be starting work on Monday in the cutting rooms. I asked him what a cutting room was; I soon found out and 48 years later I am still there! The film industry has always supported nepotism and in many cases, been very successful. All of my three children are involved in it; three of my four wives work in it, which means I am happy but poor! I have been married to a script supervisor, a first assistant director/producer and a unit publicist; from these three talented ladies I have had good advice and support throughout my career.” The movie profession does not revolve around working weekdays and 9 to 5 office hours. “We are all hired guns and out of necessity sell our souls to the devil. It is tough to lead a normal family life when often working seven days a week, on location in beautiful places or complete dumps and every place in between. I have set up cutting rooms in many places including a beach house in Hawaii, a truck following the crew to multiple locations, a trailer in a Canadian forest, and in the jail of a Crusader castle in Malta; many have happy memories but some were diabolical!”

“I was Tony Gibbs [Ronin] assistant for several years,” says Honess when recalling the industry veteran who served as his mentor. “I had previously assisted Mike Luciano [The Dirty Dozen], Thelma Connell [Alfie], Pamela Power [The Duellists] and several others. I recall that I realized that even though I was an assistant I had never cut two pieces of film together! Rarely did editors let their assistants cut. The thought quite terrified me so when working with Tony I would wind through his cut footage on the bench when he had gone home and see where he had made his cuts. It was invaluable as having never cut film. I was at least able to have an outline as to how many frames he would leave before actors spoke, the frames between pulling a trigger and the bullet hits, and where he cut to reactions and overlaid dialogue. Editors who have only cut on a computer may be baffled by this. Cutting film needed much more care because if you screwed up and started to add frames back into the cut too close together then the film would not go through the projector; it would rip. Now if you screw up, just press the delete button.” The rising talent was part of the crew working on a project being helmed by a director who established himself by making commercials with his older brother Ridley. “It was fun working with Tony Scott. The Hunger [1983] was his first feature film and my last film as an assistant. Tony's editor, Pamela Power, kindly let me leave The Hunger about a month early so I could start my journey. The film was Memed My Hawk [1984] directed by Peter Ustinov [Spartacus]. What a treat to be around that great actor, mimic and writer. Peter never spoke with his own voice unless pissed off; he had such a remarkable talent that replies and requests from him would come in many different accents! Peter was always so kind when people came up to him and asked for his autograph.”

“Patience and more patience,” believes Peter Honess is essential to be a successful film editor. “For example, the director sits with you to look at a scene you have cut. You spend sometimes days recutting and structuring the scene; one of two things often happen. The director pronounces, ‘This is what I want.’ You smile but DO NOT tell him that the scene is now virtually the same as it first was. Or he gets up, after hours of agony, and as he leaves the room throws over his shoulder, ‘Just put it back as you had it!’ Another vital element is to listen; I mean really pay attention. If you get notes for God's sake write them down. Nothing frustrates a Director more than to watch scenes where you have forgotten a note or misunderstood it; that’s how they lose trust in you. Make sure you watch carefully what the Director does with the camera. Do not cut out camera moves because you could be killing his baby.” Honess observes, “Fortunately, each Director works in a different way. I have worked with one who thought he was using me as a pair of hands to one who never came in the cutting room and was happy with the cut. The smart ones work with an editor as a collaborator. It is for me the best and most fulfilling part of the process. It is after all the Director's film and to be the conduit to telling his or her story is deeply satisfying.”

“A Film Editor should be able to cut film whatever the subject,” remarks Peter Honess who has assembled films such as Madame Sousatzka (1988), Rob Roy (1995), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Poseidon (2006), and I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009). “About 12 years ago I was branded as a ‘performance editor’, whatever that meant; I accepted The Fast and The Furious [2001] to show my agent that I could cut anything and the film did quite well!” Asked to define great film editing, Honess answers, “Seamless story telling – tease the audience, let them think they are smarter than you, then reel them in [and] do not let them off the hook or they will get bored and turn off.” He believes the three most important things when it comes to editing are timing, timing and timing “because it is the very essence of the craft.” Contemplating whether his profession is more physical than mental in nature, the native of Britain replies that film editing is “not a mechanical process or perhaps a state of mind; it’s more of a keen awareness of timing, rhythm and balance – the art of writing with pictures.”

Inserting a temporary music track while editing is a rare occurrence for Peter Honess, who states, “You influence the audience with music. Put the wrong temp music on and you’ll piss off the director as he cannot see the wood for the trees. It is not a good idea to cut your footage brilliantly to the Rolling Stones and find the production cannot afford to buy it; it will never look as good again. There are two areas in the film world that everyone is an expert in – music and script. It is silly to put temp music on a scene and spend the inquest discussing the temp music and not the performance.” Something which Honess does enjoy is the challenge of visual effects oriented films. “The technology is always improving and I am often staggered by the skills of the animators. We usually get pre-viz of most visual effects shots and this helps when putting the scene together for timing purposes. If there is no pre-vix available then I have the storyboards scanned and put into the Avid and use them between the live footage.”

“Test screenings have pros and cons,” remarks Peter Honess. “You can learn a great deal from the right audience for your film. The wrong audience can quickly unbalance a true reaction and sway the film makers into wrong decisions to please that audience. An idiot who laughs at your ‘tender moments’ can convince others to do the same and ruin the screening. I have tried for years to ask the studios to try the following at previews – ask only two questions: Did you like the film and would you recommend it? My other unsuccessful bleat is to throw away the multiple questions asked of the audience after the screening from the front two rows. Many negative reactions come from this part of the audience. Who can blame them sitting 8 feet from a 60 foot screen would do anybody’s head in.”

Peter Honess misses the camaraderie that existed before the digital revolution. “When I cut on film I always had an assistant with me; it was more fun. The computers seem to have grabbed the stage; they demand to be stroked with ever changing technologies and quite frankly are not sexy! A cutting room with those strange Moviolas, splicers, rewinds, weird looking KEMs and film hanging in bins was sexy, whereas a TV monitor and keyboard doesn't do it.” As for the portable viewing option for movies, he has no trouble with it. “With the possibilities offered on iPads and phones the more people can have a go [at editing]. Why not? Its great fun and gives you total control over what you want others to see.” When discussing recent offerings at the cinema, the Academy Award-nominee for L.A. Confidential (1997) remarks, “Not a bumper year for movies in 2011, believes Honess. “I liked very much Terrence Malick's Tree of Life; a director I would care to work for! I am looking forward to seeing Romeo and Juliet [2012]. I am cutting the film in Rome; it feels really good and hope the audience will think so too.” Honess adds, “Although English by birth I have lived in the US for most of my working life. I am fortunate to be an American citizen and a British subject which makes it easier to work in both countries.” As for what has enabled him to survive in the turbulent movie industry, he states, “Enthusiasm. It will never let you down.”

Many thanks to Peter Honess for taking the time for this interview.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

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Game of Thrones showrunners reveal new season three characters

As the second season of HBO's Emmy Award-winning Game of Thrones nears its conclusion, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are already deep in preparations to continue their acclaimed adaptation of George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series with season three, which will adapt the first half of Martin's third Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Storm of Swords.

During an interview with EW.com, Benioff and Weiss have spoken about the challenges of adding to the already enormous cast on Game of Thrones, as well as revealing which new characters fans can expect to see when season three gets underway next year:

– Mance Rayder: We’ve heard about him all season. A former member of the Night’s Watch who became the “King Beyond the Wall,” the leader of the Wildlings.

– Daario Naharis: A confident and seductive warrior.

– Jojen Reed; Meera Reed: A teenage brother and sister duo with special insights.

– Edmure Tully: A brash young member of the Tully family.

– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn Stark’s uncle.

– Lady Selyse Florent: Stannis Baratheon’s wife.

– Shireen: Stannis’ daughter.

– Olenna Redwyne (The Queen of Thorns): Margaery Tyrell’s sharp-witted grandmother.

– Beric Dondarrion: A skilled knight who is the leader of the outlaw group Brotherhood Without Banners.

– Thoros of Myr: A red priest who follows the same religion as Melisandre.

– Tormund Giantsbane: A Wildling raider.

And, if that's not enough, Benioff has also promised "a few others..."

The extended season two finale of Game of Thrones, 'Valar Morghulis', will air this coming Sunday (June 3rd). Check out a preview here.

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FM Radio Song of the Day - The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson Week!)

Up and at 'em, Philm Phans - it's good ol' JR, the Prophet Jerry Ross, here on FM Radio.

Happy Wednesday, folks - you're joining us slap bang in the middle of Wes Anderson week, here on FM Radio *studio applause*. Thank you, thank you.

The last two days have had tunes as sunny as the weather outside. Well, that's what I've been told. The studio has no natural light. So to break up the cheer, here's the classic attempted suicide track from The Royal Tenenbaums - Elliot Smith's Needle in the Hay!


Crack open a bottle of Pimms to that!

Remember - we take requests! Email in with your name, song and reasoning, and we'll give your track a spin! 

Prophet Jerry Ross

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Trailer for the (poorly) CG animated Starship Troopers: Invasion

It's fair to say that outside of Paul Verhoeven's cult 1997 original, the Starship Troopers movie franchise has been nothing short of a disaster. Phil Tippett's direct-to-video 2004 sequel Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation was an abomination, and the return of Casper Van Dien's Johnny Rico for 2008's Starship Troopers 3: Marauder did very little in the way of making amends.

Well, after those two bitter disappointments, Sony is now looking to get the series back on track by channeling the late-90s computer-generated television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles with a brand new CG-animated feature film, Starship Troopers: Invasion, from director Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Halo Legends) and scriptwriter Flint Dille (Transformers, G.I. Joe). Sadly, if the first trailer released today is anything to go by, they're going to fall some way short of achieving that goal:

"A distant Federation outpost Fort Casey comes under attack by bugs. The team on the fast attack ship Alesia is assigned to help the Starship John A. Warden stationed in Fort Casey evacuate along with the survivors and bring military intelligence safely back to Earth. Carl Jenkins, now ministry of Paranormal Warfare, takes the starship on a clandestine mission before its rendezvous with the Alesia and goes missing in the nebula. Now, the battle-hardened troopers are charged with a rescue mission that may lead to a much more sinister consequence than they ever could have imagined...."


Everyone Fights. No One Quits... Except me, half way through that trailer.

Starship Troopers: Invasion is slated for release this summer, not that you'll care in the slightest having watched just that.

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Men in Black III overthrows The Dictator at the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 25th - Sunday 27th May 2012...

After just one week at the top of the UK box office chart, Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator is usurped by Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and director Barry Sonnenfeld as the sci-fi comedy sequel Men in Black III debuts in first place with £2,953,736. While that figure was enough to claim top spot, Sony will surely be disappointed by the opening, which paled in comparison to previous outings Men in Black (£7.1m) and Men in Black II (£6.2m), despite an increase in ticket prices over the past decade, not to mention the dreaded 3D surcharge. Blame a combination of hot weather and lack of buzz for the extortionately-budgeted $375m (!!) sequel.

Banking just over £1m, The Dictator was the only other film in the top ten to break the seven-figure mark, with The Avengers adding another £872k to its haul in third for a total of £46.9m to date and counting. Ensemble comedy What to Expect Where You're Expecting debuted in fourth with $£661,617, while Dark Shadows and American Pie: Reunion fell two places apiece to fifth and sixth. Wes Anderson's latest film Moonrise Kingdom banked £251,760 to take seventh ahead of The Raid and Beauty and the Beast 3D (both down three), leaving the cult crowd-funded Nazis in space sci-fi comedy Iron Sky to claim tenth with £66,076 from a limited release on just 26 screens.

Number one this time last year: The Hangover Part II

1. Men in Black III, £2,953,736 weekend (New)
2. The Dictator, £1,078,155 weekend; £7,563,554 total (2 weeks)
3. The Avengers, £872,664 weekend; £46,891,709 total (5 weeks)
4. What to Expect When You're Expecting, £661,617 weekend; (New)
5. Dark Shadows, £409,560 weekend; £6,236,054 total (3 weeks)
6. American Pie: Reunion, £362,323 weekend; £15,813,549 total (4 weeks)
7. Moonrise Kingdom, £251,760 weekend (New)
8. The Raid, £116,340 weekend; £805,399 total (2 weeks)
9. Beauty and the Beast 3D, £69,795 weekend; £2,475,361 total (4 weeks)
10. Iron Sky, £66,076 weekend (New)

Incoming...

This Wednesday sees the release of the fairy tale action adventure Snow White and the Huntsman (cert. 12A) starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron [read our review here], while Theron is back on the screen again on Friday alongside the likes of Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba as Ridley Scott returns to the sci-fi genre with the hotly-anticipated Alien prequel Prometheus (cert. 15). Also released on Friday is the 3D animated feature Top Cat: The Movie (cert. U) [read our review here], along with the Miley Cyrus coming-of-age comedy LOL (cert. 12A) and Ken Loach's latest, The Angels' Share (cert. 15).

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New images from Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained

A new selection of images from Quentin Tarantino's latest film Django Unchained have hit the net via Yahoo Movies amid rumours that we may get to see the first teaser trailer for the Spaghetti Western tribute alongside the release of Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic Prometheus in the States next week.

Django Unchained sees Jamie Foxx leading the cast as the eponymous Django, a freed slave who teams up with the German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz) to track down Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) - a search that leads the duo to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), owner of 'Candyland', a plantation where slaves are groomed to fight each other for sport.







Also featuring in the cast for Django Unchained are Samuel L. Jackson, Garrett Dillahunt, M.C. Gainey, Gerald McRaney, Dennis Christopher, Laura Cayouette, Tom Savini and Don Johnson. The film hits North American cinemas on Christmas Day, and is set to arrive here in the UK on January 18th, 2013.

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Two more TV spots for The Dark Knight Rises

It's shaping up to be a busy week for Batman fans, what with Warner Bros. lifting the embargo on a selection of set visit reports for The Dark Knight Rises, and now comes a further two TV spots, adding to those released last week.

The latest previews include snippets of previously unseen footage featuring Bruce Wayne / Batman (Christian Bale), Bane (Tom Hardy) and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), along with some new dialogue from Alfred (Michael Caine) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and a few brief shots of John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard).

Check them out here, and expect to see plenty more as The Dark Knight Rises' July 20th release date draws ever closer...

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FM Radio Song of the Day - The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson Week!)

Up and at 'em, Philm Phans - it's good ol' JR, the Prophet Jerry Ross, here on FM Radio.

How about that weather, eh? That hot, sunny weather, eh? It's so warm, am I right?

Now that the generic weather chit-chat is out of the way, let's awkwardly segue into the next track from Wes Anderson week, here on FM Radio - Where Do You Go (To My Lovely?) by Peter Sarstedt, from the rather patchy The Darjeeling Limited.


Remember - we take requests! Email in with your name, song and reasoning, and we'll give your track a spin! 

Prophet Jerry Ross

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